Roma, a global ethnic minority

Abstract

This chapter provides a detailed contextual background of Roma migrants from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia that outlines the research methods. It looks at how the interplays between societal insecurity and increasing ethno-nationalism, determine which groups are defined as a "threat". In Central and Eastern Europe, ethno-nationalism has become a cornerstone of post-Soviet politics, leading to societal schisms in which Roma, as the biggest ethnic minority without a nation state, have been increasingly marginalised. Since Roma migration is a dynamic movement of people across social and spatial borders, we need to identify research sites that are not limited to specific geographic locations but instead follow the flow of migration. Definitional challenges of the Roma ethnic identity are also represented in the linguistic approach, which differentiates Roma by their Romani language dialects.